In Stemming The Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering, two University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professors report on their survey of over 3,700 women with engineering degrees. They found that just one in four women who had left the field reported doing so to spend more time with family.

One third left “because they did not like the workplace climate, their boss or the culture,” while almost half departed due to “working conditions, too much travel, lack of advancement or low salary” (respondents were allowed to check more than one reason). The researchers also found that among women who got engineering degrees but never entered the field, a third made that decision “because of their perceptions of engineering as being inflexible or the engineering workplace culture as being non-supportive of women.” And, unsurprisingly, “Women engineers who were treated in a condescending, patronizing manner, and were belittled and undermined by their supervisors and co-workers were most likely to want to leave their organizations.”

News such as this can’t inspire young women to go into these fields, as evidenced by the dismal US figures in the charts below that Catalyst, a non-profit membership organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for women and business, published about females pursuing formal education in the technology realm:

Anecdotally, I can speak to the fact that many of our contacts within client organizations are women; some would argue that marketing, the department with which we’re most frequently engaged at our client companies, is among the corporate world’s pink collar ghetto (along with HR, PR and other female-dominated roles) and thus there’s an inordinate number of females in those roles. But that’s not always the case, and it should be noted that women can and have risen to the highest ranks in these disciplines within technology companies, an accomplishment that’s not to be overlooked.

What percentage of women are participating in the more technical side of technology companies? Vastly fewer women than men, according to this chart, also from Catalyst:

With a little research, however, it’s easy to find powerful and successful female role models in tech. Fast Company did an extensive feature back in 2009 that profiled the Most Influential Women in Technology. Though it’s a bit out of date and some of these ladies are sure to have changed roles and companies, at the time it was noted that there were high-ranking female executives at companies like Intel, IBM, Yahoo, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, ebay and that it was women entrepreneurs that founded Flickr, SlideShare and BabyCenter.

What is the secret to success for women in technology? Is it networking? Education? Entrepreneurship? Some combination of those elements?

I personally had many great networking experiences with the group Canadian Women in Technology (formerly CATA WIT, now CanWIT), a networking group whose Ottawa meetings are filled with great, inspiring, successful women working in high tech. Though I haven’t yet had the pleasure of attending one of their events FUN for Tech Women appears to be a vibrant and growing group that meets its objectives of providing “Fellowship, Unity and Networking” for women working in Ottawa’s tech sector. Women in tech in this region are positively spoiled with the amount of networking, camaraderie, guest speakers, and role models available to them.

It would seem, however, that Ottawa (if not Canada as a whole) offers more support and encouragement to women in the male dominated technology sector than many other communities. Gender imbalance in IT is a keenly studied topic, as evidenced by the two separate conferences that took place this month dedicated to boosting the participation of women in technology in the US. According to US government statistics, while the fairer sex accounted for 36 percent of IT professionals in 1991, they now account for only 25 percent of same.

An article last year in the Wall Street Journal sounded the alarm about the lack of women leading venture-backed startups:

Only about 11% of U.S. firms with venture-capital backing in 2009 had current or former female CEOs or female founders, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource. The prestigious startup incubator Y Combinator has had just 14 female founders among the 208 firms it has funded.

The “where-are-all-the-women” meme is a familiar one, and not confined to the technology world. But in start-up land, where the good idea is supposed to trump social status and everything else, the lack of women in positions of authority stands out.

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.

About the guest blogger: Linda Forrest is an Associate at Francis Moran & Associates. Dozens of CEOs proudly attach their names to articles she’s ghostwritten, and journalists from outlets of all sizes – from niche website to the New York Times – respond to her subtle pitching style in a way that truly gets results. Now that the time she has spent marketing B2B technology companies has eclipsed her days as a music promoter, Linda earns her keep helping tech ventures go to market in the most effective manner possible. Follow her on Twitter at @lindaforrest.

http://www.twitter.com/heycheri Sherilynn “Cheri” Macale

Will be tweeting this article, and I’d say those results are pretty accurate (though shocking to see all lined up side by side like that). Was actually having this disccussion with another tech journalist today about how there are rarely any women in the tech industry who manage to stand out. This will hopefully change as tech becomes more mainstream and younger generations adopt Internet use and how fascinating startups in tech can be (with movies like The Social Network etc popping out to spark interest).

Good article, Linda.
Well researched and it shows.

http://www.francis-moran.com Linda Forrest

Thanks for reading, Cheri.

Kaivalya

Excellent article; thank you Linda. it’s sure worthy of saving it for reference for a few projects.
Your visual presentation (on-your-face) of the gross imbalance in this field it’s very well presented.
Until Women realized, understand that absolutely nothing will change, anywhere, for Women until we have enough Women helping make the rules and laws in all the 3 branches of our government; absolutely.
males have fully rule all branches of our government for…. centuries…

lets honor the memory, and the so very wise words, from our beloved Firs Lady Ford (R.I.P.)~ very early after she became our First Lady, Betty Ford said, and she sure worked hard at it; ” the time has come for Women to step up and TAKE THEIR PLACE”.

we must work hard and unite, Women AND Men, so we can bring, and very soon, balance to our leadership in washington D.C. were the rules and laws for the entire planet are created, truly.
for as long as WE Women keep allowing this tiny group of ultra-wealthy, only-all males elite group of all-about power, profits, greed and lust, that also one of their priorities IS to keep Women out of this sphere at all cost!.
it shows, doesn’t it?~ grossly true. it shows Worldwide.

Women – wake the heck-up!!
we are almost a the point of no return; because of the greed of this very small group of all males destroying ourPlanet!!